


Blessing In Disguise

by Kissa



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Crack, Explicit Language, Gen, bingo fic, curse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-25
Updated: 2020-11-25
Packaged: 2021-03-10 00:22:46
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,493
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27714703
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kissa/pseuds/Kissa
Summary: Summary: Alec gets cursed by a dying warlock, which means he might have to learn to live with his curse.
Relationships: Alec Lightwood & Jace Wayland, Alec Lightwood/Jace Wayland
Comments: 14
Kudos: 44
Collections: Hunter's Moon Fic Recs, SHBingo 20-21





	Blessing In Disguise

**Author's Note:**

> This story is inspired by Matthew Daddario saying he has a very filthy mind and a very dirty vocabulary and the Eminem line "somewhere deep down there's a decent human being in me, he just can't be found". Also, I wanted to put a different spin on the prompt "curses" - my first reaction was write something dark and tragic but like, most my SH fics are dark and tragic. I felt like something different is in order.

  
The blast of magic was intended for Jace, but Alec reflexively jumped in its path and took the blow himself.  
  
Jace had a future and a lot to live for, now that he had found out he was Shadowhunter royalty.  
  
Alec had a shameful existence and a deformed heart. He figured he could afford to shoulder a curse.  
  
 _ea quae abscondita est, amittere, quod ostensum est_ _  
_  
Jace memorised the warlock’s dying words, in case they needed them later. He lifted Alec in his arms, as one would carry a sleeping child.

Alec was burning to the touch, sweating and mumbling unintelligibly.  
  
By the time they arrived at Magnus’ place, Alec was laughing softly in his palm, like only he had been told a very good joke.  
  
“Magnus!” Jace’s voice sounded like thunder, projecting through all the corners of the loft. “Alec needs your help! He’s been cursed!”  
  
Magnus crawls out of bed at once, putting on light silk yukata and not fastening it all the way, upon hearing Alec is there. 

Jace carefully lays Alec down on the sofa in the lounge, sitting close to him and resting Alec’s head in his lap.  
  
“Magnus, we were misled. We were told we would find the secret coven we’ve been looking for at an address downtown and when we went there, they were gone, only this one wounded warlock remained… She threw a curse at me, but Alec took the hit.”  
  
“Poor Alexander… what’s wrong with you?” Magnus “Let me see... “ He adds, extending his magic outward, enveloping Alec and searching for the nature of the curse. “Were there words that were said?”  
  
“Yes,” Jace answers. “ _ea quae abscondita est, amittere, quod ostensum est”._ _  
__  
_“Reveal what is hidden and lose what is shown… “ Magnus translates from Latin. “Not good. This curse is designed to bring forth the most hidden passions and desires, without the person’s ability to control themselves or to censor how these are expressed. Sooner or later, the person ends up alone and shunned by their community for their vile and unrepressed urges.”  
  
“Oh God.” Clary says. “Can’t it be reversed? Or… made more bearable? I mean, Alec treats me like shit on the regular, I don’t see how the curse might make that worse, bar him straight up killing me.”  
  
“I will lessen the physical effects of the magical blast, but I’m afraid I will need some time to look for a way to lift the actual curse.” Magnus says. “Until then, I guess we all get courtside tickets to Alec’s mind.”  
  
With those words, Magnus raises his hands and lets his magic do its repair work on Alec.  
  
If he’s honest, every warlock learns about this curse early on in their training. But few use it, because it is particularly cruel, making the targets isolate themselves and arrive at a bitter, lonely and early end caused by their dark tendencies being allowed to manifest freely.  
  
***  
  
After about two hours, during which Jace has exactly two mouthfuls of water and refuses to leave Alec’s side, his parabatai wakes up from the recovery sleep Magnus’ magic put him in.  
  
“Jace!” Alec says, right after his eyes become focused. He reaches his hand up, trying to caress Jace’s face in a gesture that lacks finesse, but holds a lot of relief. “I thought I was dying. But then, I wasn’t. It’s good to be back.”  
  
He sits up and leans on Jace for a bit, resting his head on Jace’s shoulder.  
  
“I’ve had worse endings to my workdays.” Alec says, sighing and closing his eyes. “Hi Magnus.” He adds, smiling with his eyes closed.  
  
“He’s doing alright, yes. All things considered. Is he always this cuddly?” Magnus says, addressing Jace. “I think he’s alright to go back to the Institute, just keep me updated on his condition.”  
  
“Will do. Thank you, Magnus.” Jace says, getting up and holding out his hand for Alec. “Let’s go home.”  
  
The others went ahead, since there was nothing they could help Alec with. 

As they start walking, Alec doesn’t take his hand out of Jace’s.  
  
“Everything alright? How do you feel?” Jace asks. 

“Fine! If we ignore, as usual, my unrequited love for you that refuses to go away no matter how much I try to beat it out of myself.” Alec says, hanging his head in defeat. The curse is really in effect. 

Jace’s eyes widen and he briefly squeezes Alec’s hand in his. 

“Hey. It’s alright. I… I love you too, Alec. I just thought all this time that you had a crush on me because I was close and accessible and we grew up together.”  
  
“You’re just saying this to make me feel better. You’re not gay! You’re the straightest person I know.” Alec snaps, then sighs. “I’m sorry.” He adds in a softer voice.  
  
Jace smiles slowly.  
  
“When have I ever spared your feelings, Alec? And whatever the fuck made you decide I’m straight?”  
  
“You are always going out with girls! Seelies, mostly.”  
  
“Yeah well Seelies know a lot of cool shit, and they have the best drugs!” Jace concedes.  
  
“Also, you never said a thing to me. So I assumed you were straight, because otherwise I’d have to accept I’m ugly or something.”  
  
“Alec. I didn’t say anything because I didn’t want you to feel like I’m playing with you or just using you to experiment. And because I felt that maybe our parents would not look too kindly on my fucking their son after they did me the solid of taking me in when I had no one.”  
  
“My parents don’t look kindly on anything I do. So fuck them.” Alec says. “Or, better yet, fuck me. We have years to make up for.”  
  
“What, here?” Jace says, looking around. “We’re crossing a cemetery.”  
  
“It’s romantic enough for me. Come on, Jace, you never back out of anything. My ass is as clean as a puppy’s conscience and tighter than an engineer’s handshake. I genuinely don’t see what is keeping you back.”  
  
Jace makes an indistinct sound, somewhere between a huff of laughter and one of outrage. This curse is terrible, but in unexpected ways. 

“Look, Alec. Curse or no curse, I’m not going to have my first time with you in a cemetery, with no lube, warm water or tissues. I am down for it, but at the Institute, and you can make do, or fuck off.”  
  
“Fine, then let’s go.” Alec says, hightailing it towards the Institute, making Jace have to run after him to catch up.  
  
***

Once there, they are faced with another issue.  
  
Izzy told their mother that Alec got cursed and Maryse doesn’t seem the least bit worried by that in particular.  
  
“You were supposed to catch those warlocks, not get cursed like a noob! Some leader you are!” She says, skipping the greetings. She does turn to Jace to ask: “How are you, are you alright?”  
  
“You sent me in there with no intel, just a mission. And I protected my parabatai, so yeah I’d say it was a fucking excellent leader move.” Alec hears himself say, looking mortified and hanging his head, expecting retaliation.  
  
“Wow, you were cursed with a spine?! Maybe it was not a curse at all.” Maryse shoots back. “Did no one who went on the mission prepare for it even one bit? Did you, Alec, call your warlock boyfriend to ask him if he knew something about a few of his buddies gone rogue?”  
  
“Like he would have told me! His loyalty is with his kind.”  
  
“Every single Shadhowhunter in this room is ready to go out of their way to get the needed information. Only you want it spoon-fed to you.” Maryse insists.  
  
“You mean you trained everyone to whore themselves out for intel and for your cause. Well, I’m not getting fucked in the ass for one tiny mission tip and you can either live with that, or sit on a dick and spin.” Alec says, his hands behind his back, the nails from one digging into the wrist from the other.  
  
The blood drains from Maryse’s face and for a moment, everyone holds their breath, thinking this might be the day when Maryse decides to undo her youth mistakes and murders Alec on the spot.  
  
But instead, she throws her head back and laughs, a laughter that makes her shoulders shake. When she calms down, she looks at Alec and winks.  
  
“I like the new Alec. It took twenty three years and a magic blast for his balls to descend, but better late than never.”  
  
“I’ll show-” Alec starts, but Maryse wrangles him into submission with her palm raised in front of his face.  
  
“Do better next time. Dismissed.”  
  
Jace, who witnessed all of that, follows Alec out of the war room.  
  
“That went better than I expected.” He comments. “And Maryse is right. The new you… I like to think the curse only brings out what was already there, and doesn’t have the power to overwrite your entire personality.”  
  
“So does that mean you’ll fuck me now?”  
  
“I feel it’s too early for you to be sucking every drop of romance from the relationship.”  
  
“I could suck every drop of-”  
  
“I’m going to stop you right there.” Jace says, keeping Alec’s lips closed with one hand while pulling Alec along to the living quarters with the other.  
  
Alec protests, but submits soon, realising the longer he keeps it up, the longer Jace will keep his mouth hostage.  
  
When he is set free at last, he speaks again, but in a more subdued tone.  
  
“I wish you didn’t grab me by the lips like that, it’s humiliating.”  
  
“But effective.”  
  
“Just… don’t do it. How would you like it if I picked you up and held you at my eye level to talk to you?”  
  
Jace’s mouth opens and closes a few times, like he’s a fish out of water, and it finally dawns on him how much this one thing he does peeves Alec. 

“Fair.” Jace concedes. “How about I steal a can of spray on whipped cream and we go up to my room to find more pleasant ways to shut you up?”

***  
  
It turns out there are two kinds of people in the Shadow World, and outside of those two types, there’s Jace.  
  
There’s the people who meet Alec, know he’s been cursed, and promptly want nothing to do with him or get super aggressive.  
  
One such person is Victor Aldertree, who tries to frame Alec for treason and have him executed, but Alec’s filthy vocabulary and the avalanche of insults that follows from it are enough to upset him to the point of admitting to the plan.  
  
Then there's Izzy and Jace's grandmother. Imogen asks to meet him once she learns he is her grandson’s parabatai (and lately, boyfriend too). She ends up laughing so hard over dinner with Jace and Alec that it makes her blood pressure spike.  
  
Magnus tries his hardest to stick around, but he draws the line at Alec telling him “I don’t fuck with birds, so get off my cock” during a Downworld Council meeting.  
  
Robert is mortified; Maryse is cynical about it. No matter the outcome, she knows she will be entertained at her son’s expense, so she doesn’t feel affected either way.

Jace just loves that he’s no longer the only one being gross and graphic and that now Alec is a jukebox of irreverent quips. It also means the sex is amazing - some of the stuff that leaves Alec’s mouth while he is getting fucked could make the greater demons cover their ears. The fact that Jace can maintain erections through that and even get more turned on is something he takes great personal pride in. On the other hand, laughing does make his orgasms last longer so win-win.  
  
But slowly, the majority of people Alec has to work and live with start to exclude him from activities and avoid him in everyday life. It’s insidious because it’s a slow process.  
  
Still, a solution comes from Simon, who turns one of Alec’s roasts into a teaching moment for the others.  
  
“You guys are so pathetic. You all pride yourselves on being half angel and being superior, but you’re going to abandon someone just because he talks like Eminem in his "Marshall Mathers LP" days? None of the things he has said have been lies. Exaggerations? Yes. But not lies. He’s a shitty IKEA mirror held up to show you the ugliest parts of yourselves. We have people like Alec in the mundane world. But they are not cursed, they are ill. And guess what? We don’t leave them out in the cold. They are still our brothers, sisters, parents, teachers. Sometimes they say insensitive or irreverent things with crap timing, but other times they have great timing and we can laugh along. Do as you wish, walk out on your son, colleague, boss - just know that mundanes beat you at compassion!”  
  
“Not all of them, but nice sentiment,” Clary whispers, coming over to hug Simon. “I’m so proud of you.”  
  
“No one asked you, Fruit Loop Coochie Girl.” Alec interjects, turning to the vampire: “Thank you for your kind words, Simon.”  
  
Clary blinks at Alec calling her _that_ , then starts to laugh.  
  
“You know, that’s the first non-murderous thing you’ve said to me. Now that Izzy explained the curse just makes you unable to censor how you feel on the inside, I think that’s actually a nice thing to say. Could it be you actually like me, Alec Lightwood?”  
  
“Yes, Clary, I like you well enough to appoint you to be a pallbearer at my funeral - so you can let me down one last time.” Alec says, deadpan.  
  
Something switches itself on in Clary - maybe it’s the angel blood, maybe it’s the Brooklyn childhood - and she walks up to Alec, looks him dead in the eyes and says, loud enough to be heard by Jace, Maryse, Robert, Izzy and Simon:  
  
“Alec, if you were on fire and all I had was a cup of my own piss, I’d drink it.”  
  
Alec gasps, finally without a reply.  
  
Then a blue glow envelops him and magical sparks ignite around him, popping one by one and leaving his body in the shape of a fine glitter dust that ends up on the Institute floor before vanishing.  
  
The curse dissolved...  
  
... leaving behind a terrified Alec, afraid of having to pick up the tab of his unrepressed self.  
  
But even as he starts to tremble and look for the nearest exit, he feels Jace taking his hand.  
  
“The way I see it, you have two options. Either revert to the old you and pay the costs, or enjoy your newly earned freedom. What’s it going to be, Alec?”  
  
The trembling in Alec’s hands goes away and the slow smile that spreads across his features tells Jace all he needs to know.  
  
(end)  
  



End file.
